GoldLink puts on for his hometown. Raised between Washington D.C. and Prince Georges County, Maryland, the ever-experimental artist has galvanized crowds around the world with a pulsating sound that he coined early on — future bounce. His last two releases God Complex and After That We Didn't Talk were sonically aligned with this style. With his new album At What Cost, GoldLink pivots in a new direction: he smoothes out the bright colors and turns the spotlight on D.C. culture and its distinct musical legacy.
Go-go music, which is sub-genre of funk created in the city by the iconic Chuck Brown in the 1970s, is the figurative backdrop for the project. Despite its evolution, go-go is deeply woven into the cultural fabric of the nation's capital and the bordering metro areas of Maryland and Northern Virginia. Across 14 tracks, GoldLink utilizes interludes, features, and lyrical references to neighborhoods as a way to peel back the textures of his city. In an interview at The FADER office last week, GoldLink explained of his hometown: "It almost shapes us as a community and who we are. It’s like the music is the background for the entire city."
During his visit, GoldLink talked about how gentrification is affecting D.C., his responsibility to represent, and why he took a minimal approach to the album's production this time around.